The Gap Seminars bridge

The Gap Seminars bridge

The Gap Seminars bridge  contains everything you need to market and deliver educational seminars to clients and prospective clients. Each seminar is designed to educate attendees while positioning ways that you can better support attendees.

Important info
Use the content in the  Event Management (EM) bridge to design and deliver your own bespoke seminars following the tried and tested Gap process.

Note
Hosting seminars is a highly effective education marketing strategy, and a proven pathway to fast-track your ROI from The Gap.


To access the Gap Seminars bridge, navigate to Main menu >  > Bridges > Gap Seminars.

Understanding the Gap Seminars process

Seminars are an efficient and engaging method of delivering education marketing to your existing and prospective clients. Hosting seminars positions you and your firm as proactive experts while taking the 'hard sell' out of positioning your business development and advisory services. Delivering seminars is an effective marketing and selling strategy because you're providing value before you extract value, in a highly leveraged way. Each seminar should have a clear call to action, with complimentary, low-cost and full-service options positioned as next steps.

Tip
Offering complimentary and low-cost resources or service options is a great way to get attendees on the value ladder. It also allows you to support all attendees (regardless of their budgetary constraints) which will promote client stickiness and referrals.

Ensure you review the Process Guide prior to marketing the webinar, it outlines best practice to successfully deliver each Gap seminar, including how to use the content.

Note
The content in the Gap Seminars bridge is not separated into separate folders for process, marketing, selling, delivery and review like other bridges; all content is listed within the bridge.

Marketing the Gap Seminars

Ideally, you'll have a six-week lead time to market your seminar to ensure you can deliver a number of marketing activities and engage your referral networks.  The Seminar Plan clearly articulates attendee learning outcomes and points of value, seminar goals, target market, budget, and a schedule of marketing activities.

Note
The Seminar Plan in each of our Gap seminar kits has been pre-populated with specific client learning outcomes, client points of value, and positioning information to help you clearly market the seminar to your audience.

Each seminar has marketing email  templates available as a Word file or to send via BOMA. Click the name of the email to download the Word file, then copy the email body and paste into your email campaign software. There's also a Seminar Flyer template you can download, brand and display in your offices and send to your referral network. 

Tip
Consider offering complimentary tickets to some clients. Use the Seminar Voucher template to create vouchers to send, allowing clients to attend the event for free.

There may be certain clients who you know would benefit from attending the seminar. Partners and senior managers should use the Sales Call Script to call key clients to invite them to the seminar; either offering complimentary tickets or stating the price.

Using BOMA to market your seminar

  1. All marketing emails (as well as short content for posting across your social channels) are available as templates in the BOMA platform. Click the  button next to the name of the email to seamlessly create your email campaign in BOMA. Prior to scheduling the email and social posts, ensure that you have:
    1. Updated the date and time
    2. Added your registration link and deleted any instruction text
    3. Reviewed and updated the intro content and email body to match your firm's digital voice
  2. Navigate to Main menu >  > Marketing > The Gap + BOMA > The Gap + BOMA Content Library Catalogue  to find additional education marketing content relevant to your seminar topic that you can use for lead generation.

Delivering the Gap Seminars

Seminar duration

Each seminar generally takes 90 minutes to deliver, including time for Q + A at the end. The timing will depend  on your unique delivery and the level of engagement with attendees. It's better to overestimate the length than underestimate. We recommend inviting attendees to stay for refreshments and networking after the seminar.

The PowerPoint Template

Each seminar has a PowerPoint Template ready for you to download and customise: 
  1. Follow the instructions on slide 1 to update the PowerPoint, then delete the slide
  2. Review and update the speaker notes as required
  3. Some slides are animated; the speaker notes indicate when to click to show animations
  4. Ensure the call to action from the seminar is clear, i.e. how your attendees can engage you to improve their outcomes

Workbooks

Workbooks should be prepared, printed and provided to attendees in a presentation pack, along with a pen, evaluation form, and Service Cards for appropriate services.

Practising your delivery

It's essential the presenter has practised delivering the seminar a number of times to ensure confidence during the seminar.
  1. The presenter should practise delivering the seminar in presentation mode
  2. Some presentations may require you to switch between the PowerPoint and other software or websites - practise this several times
  3. The presenter should practise delivering the seminar in the room the seminar will be held in, using the microphone, clicker and flipcharts
  4. The PowerPoint presentation with speaker notes should be on hand during the seminar but used only when required

Calls to action

As an outcome of attending the seminar, attendees should have a clear call to action. Each of our seminars relates to at least one Gap service, with recommended service options listed on the Next steps slide in the PowerPoint template.

Creating your own bespoke seminars

Use the content in the Event Management bridge to follow our systemised process to create your own bespoke seminars. Navigate to  Main menu >   > Bridges > Event Management. The Process Guide contains clear instructions for how to use the content. Ensure you establish the points of value, client learning outcomes and calls to action for every seminar.

Reviewing your Gap Seminars

Ensure all attendees are provided with an evaluation form at the end of the seminar. Allow five minutes for everyone to complete the Evaluation Form before ending the seminar.  Each Gap seminar has an Evaluation Form template set up with questions for attendees to rate the quality and value of the seminar, record the three actions they'll take and select a service option. 

Important info
The  Event Management Process Guide contains tips to ensure attendees complete the evaluation form and tick a box to request a service.

Post seminar follow up

Ensure you have a clear process to follow up with attendees regarding their feedback. Use the Seminar Evaluation Summary to collate the feedback and services requested on the evaluation forms. 
  1. Send a thank you email to all attendees the day after the seminar - a template is available in the bridge and in BOMA
  2. Send complimentary resources or service options within 24 hours of the seminar
  3. If the presenter positioned the price of the service during the webinar, a proposal should be sent within 48 hours
    1. If not, you should discuss price and client objectives to ensure you have conceptual agreement before sending a proposal
  4. Engage attendees who haven't requested a service but have provided great feedback - these attendees should be followed up by a Client Manager or Partner
  5. Send a follow up email 5-7 days after the seminar to any attendees who did not request a service or a complimentary meeting

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